Customer Experience in traditional channels

Poland     |      offline surveys, ROPO effect, geo-fencing     |    research projects

The tools developed by YourCX allow gathering information about offline channel experiences (brick-and-mortar stores, customer service points, etc.) using a variety of methods. You can ask about everything – emotions accompanying the visit, problems and needs, satisfaction with the quality of service, about purchase habits. Such surveys can also be combined with monitoring the ROPO (Research Online, Purchase Offline) effect, i.e. the analysis of the impact of online channel experience (product search, price comparison, etc.)  on the decision to purchase in traditional shop or to visit it. YourCX surveys allow also determining the scale of the revROPO effect associated with searching the information offline (e.g. to touch or test a product) and purchasing online.

One of the techniques that support implementation of that type of surveys is geo-fencing. We reach the users when they are in our Clients’ or competitors’ traditional stores. When the users search the Internet for product information or price comparisons, they are invited to participate in a short survey. As shown by our analyses, an average of 90% of the recipients of that type of survey are correctly identified as customers who are in a traditional shop at a particular time. Due to the fact that geo-fencing accuracy may be low (e.g. up to 200 meters), that form of implementation of surveys is best suited for large-format stores.

Inną formą realizacji podobnego badania jest integracja ankiety z aplikacją mobilną. Użytkownik, który przebywa lub przebywał w ostatnim czasie w danym sklepie, otrzyma na swoim telefonie powiadomienie push z zaproszeniem do oceny doświadczeń w danym sklepie. W przypadku, kiedy znamy adres e-mail danego użytkownika (gdy jest np. zalogowany na swoje konto), możemy również przesyłać badanie także drogą mailową. Ta metoda sprawdza się również w przypadku badań punktów obsługi, gdzie klient pozostawia swoje dane kontaktowe (np. przy podpisaniu umowy o usługę telekomunikacyjną lub realizację wyjazdu wakacyjnego).

The Internet has a significant impact on offline shopping decisions – about 70% of customers search the network before visiting a traditional shop. The customers who check the products online before buying offline are more demanding.

Offline experience surveys can also be implemented using QR codes placed on leaflets, posters and even fiscal receipts. Currently, however, increasingly popular is placing special devices in strategic locations, that allow the customers to express their opinions by, for example, touching a button that corresponds to their positive or negative emotions. For more extensive surveys, tablets or touch screens can be used. That method also allows the customers to enter their comments. Data is transferred to the system on a regular basis or in bulk when the device is connected to the Internet. The form of an invitation to participate in such survey may vary – the device may be appropriately labeled and accessible to every visitor, although the visitors may also be invited to participate in the survey by the personnel.

As one can see, there are many forms of carrying out the surveys of customer experience in traditional points of sales and/or customer service points. YourCX makes every effort to ensure that the surveys carried out through that channel are tailored to the Clients’ needs, the nature of customers and the specificity of the industry. Each customer experience survey is carefully planned – from strategic and methodological level, to analytics and reporting.

Collecting the evaluations of quality of service, cleanliness, product availability, likelihood to recommend, price sensitivity and other aspects, along with the related information concerning a given traditional point of sale, enables advanced segmentation, comparisons and internal benchmarking. The locations (stores, customer service points) that score lower than average ratings may be subjected to more rigorous analyses, so that any factors that affect customer experience can be correctly identified and effectively eliminated.

In the context of the ROPO effect and customer journey, it is difficult to define universal rules to be followed – much depends on industry and competition. Regular measurement of experience, emotions and behaviours is of key importance to estimating the ROI.

An example of implementation of offline channel surveys include our actions taken to optimize the customer experience for one of the largest cinema networks in Poland. Each viewer who made a reservation or purchase through online channel receives – after seeing the movie – a survey questionnaire asking for evaluation of the cinema (sound and video quality, courtesy of the personnel, cleanliness in toilets, etc.), and we monitor the experience accompanying the visit (matching of advertisements to the movie, quality of products purchased in the bar, temperature in cinema hall, etc.).

The collected data are carefully analyzed at both the general and more detailed level – at the level of a single visit to the cinema. Internal benchmarks allow evaluate condition of individual cinemas, and comments and opinions make it easy to find the source of the problems. The analyses use also a number of additional information accompanying each completed questionnaire, including the type of ticket or film genre.

At the reporting level, we provide constant insight into both general (indexes, benchmarks, regional and country-level comparisons) and detailed data (comments, opinions, suggestions). Thanks to advanced segmentations and comparisons, it is possible to fully optimize the customer experience and increase the quality of the services provided. Those actions then translate directly into increased satisfaction and likelihood to recommend, boost the whisper marketing, and eventually translate into increased revenue and satisfaction of the customers with their visits to the cinemas.